The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria declared on Thursday that none of its members intended to raise the price of gasoline.
This was revealed by IPMAN’s Public Relations Officer, Okanlawon Olanrewaju, during a Channels Television interview. He cautioned Nigerians against making rash fuel purchases.
Oil marketers had told The PUNCH on Tuesday that the cost of crude oil and the collapse of the naira versus the US dollar were driving up gasoline subsidies. They emphasized that PMS should sell for N1,200 a litre in a free market.
Many Nigerians remain concerned despite the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s dismissal of the likelihood of another pump price increase on Wednesday.
In the meantime, IPMAN’s PRO guaranteed that gasoline marketers cannot raise fuel prices on their own until instructed to do so by NNPCL.
“As far as the independent marketers are concerned, we don’t have plans or plans to increase fuel pump price
“There is no basis for that for now. There is no signal from NNPC that we should increase. So, we cannot do that on our own except NNPC comes out and says we are going to increase pump price. On our own, there is nothing like that.
“I want to use this opportunity to appeal to the public to stop panic buying. There is nothing like that (fuel price increment). It is just a rumour, ” he said.
President Bola Tinubu had in his May 29 inauguration said the 2023 budget made no provision for fuel subsidy and that it was no longer justifiable.